Quite right mate. And the top four can all help in other games. And some of the chasers play each other like Blackburn v Coventry, Millwall v Preston etc. And we can beat the likes of Watford, West Brom and Preston to help outlrselves. And three of the next four are at home. Burnley play Blackburn ... ouch, always a nasty game. Sheff Utd play West Brom and Preston Luton play Blackburn And Boro play Coventry plus Norwich as you said. Totally unpredictable and nothing to say Preston won't blow up as Blackburn have.
Just realised we're travelling to the Outer Hebrides on the Monday of the season's finale, what a bummer. Imagine trying to negotiate Glen Coe and trying to concentrate on the match ffs. Bloody Coronation
Debateable. Burnley have the best squad in the league by a mile and 4/5 of their starting Xl every week is loaned. They’ve got £3-5m players in most positions with good back up. Southampton have a £20m player in every position. Some of the teams in the play offs this season are woeful. Luton and Millwall play some of the worst football I’ve seen all season. Best case scenario is forest going down because they’ll be knackered and players will leave but if they survive you’re potentially replacing one of those with someone like Leeds. Remember all these clubs need to do is sell 2/3 players to generate some decent money and put it back into the squad and unless you’re doing something seriously wrong you’re going back up just like Burnley have. Good players aren’t going to sit around for 3/4 years in the championship. So I get your point about being prepared but realistically you can’t sign a squad full of players who are premier league quality when you’re in the championship and if we do get promoted we should be spending good money to ensure we stay up.
I'd hate to gey promoted and watch them get beat every week, but we need to be promoted to step up financially. How often is the championship won by a team not relgated the season before? Must be few and far between these days?
They’re normally always right up there aren’t they! Of course I’d love to have a squad that’s comfortable in the premier league when we go up but I think the main thing is investing properly when we do go up so we have a good mix of quality and experience around the players we already have who are good enough. Even Brighton pumped £200m+ in their first few seasons in the Prem. It wasn’t until 21/22 when they started selling for bigger fees and funding future transfer activity.
I think if we did go up now through play-offs or whenever we do go up we are unlikely to spend more than most clubs spend on one player these days! So will rely on investing it wisely and younger players making the step up, still prefer that to signing a bunch of plodders and scraping survival in the last few weeks after being terrible to watch all season!
Just watched the extended highlights again ( Cardiff club video) and Dan Neil and Ekwah need a day on the training field just practising hitting the target from the edge of the box, 3 great chances blazed miles over the bar, from unchallenged shots laid on for them. These are chances we create quite a lot the way we play, but we don't seem to take as serious scoring opportunities. It's ****ing maddening.
True. But in all honesty, I often enough find myself saying the same things watching the very top players. Clear shots flying over the bar or straight at the keeper. It happens all the time, though obviously more where we are. Must be a bit harder than it looks!
I was robbed with that goal. After the Clarke header was ruled offside I didn't jump up when that went in ... ... I was sure they'd pan to the linesman with his flag raised By the time I was certain I'd already started worrying about holding onto the lead
BY THOMAS THORNTON BATTH WILL WELCOME COMPETITION https://www.a-love-supreme.com/single-post/batth-will-welcome-competition Danny Batth has reacted to Tony Mowbray's comments, where the gaffer said the club will look to strengthen their defensive reinforcements in the summer. COMPETITION “I think every club has to have competition for places. Look it won’t just be me who has competition for places, it will be Dan, and Luke, and Aji. There should be competition all over the pitch. If you want to be successful you have to have a training group that really drives the standard." LOW ON NUMBERS “We were preparing for the game against Cardiff the other day and we haven’t got that depth of squad because of the injuries we’ve got. We’ve got goalkeepers playing outfield as we are trying to replicate what Cardiff do. There are holes in the squad that are going to be filled and that will be no different at any other club in the league. I always enjoy a challenge.” CAPTAIN “It’s not the first club I’ve captained a club. Obviously Corry is out injured and I’ve been leading the team but you don’t need an armband to do that. I think it’s always been a responsibility I’ve taken upon myself and I just try to be a good example and voice for the team. COMMUNICATION “We’re not full of talkers, we haven’t got too many that are too extroverted. I think organising as best I can and trying to perform well myself gives the rest of the lads in front of us confidence that they can take risks and we’ll still be there to defend. I'm telling the likes of Edouard [Michut], 'can you drop in and make it difficult for them?' We've had to be really smart in that sense this season because teams will look at us on paper and think if they perhaps block me or block a [Dan] Ballard they'll have a free run at it [getting on the end of balls in the box]." CHAMPIONSHIP INVESTMENT "I think Covid has probably done that in terms of the reaction in terms of the wages and investment clubs can afford to make. We finished fifth in League One last year and are coming to places like Cardiff and winning." BELIEF "It's alright saying it's not a great league but we weren't great in League One to be honest. We rode away and got promoted and now have that belief and momentum in the group to compete with these teams. We don't take anything for granted and go into every game with an appetite to win and have to believe we can compete at this level. We have a handful of players who have played most of their careers at this level but for a lot of the lads it's their debut season and they have really done well so far." CARDIFF WIN "I think [we could have won more comfortably] but there is never much between teams in the Championship. We saw that the other night [when Sunderland conceded an injury-time penalty which cost them two points against Hull City] with the game management at the end where a more experienced side perhaps sees that game out comfortably. I thought Monday was important, especially when we went ahead, because everyone to a man to dug in and stuck to their task." FIRST HALF "We were really fluid first half and we spoke about that before the game if they want to sit off to draw them out and play through them. I felt like we looked really good first half and that's part of the Championship, you are going to get different tests and teams are going to try different strategies to make it uncomfortable for you." DIRECTNESS "I thought first half we were brilliant and then obviously they reacted at half-time and just simplified their game and were more direct to ask questions of our back three/back four. It only takes a moment to switch off and they've got big boys in from the back at the end there."
Funny thing, I went to Fulham in the cup and jumped about when Rigg scored. The offside later barely reduced the fact that I'd still had a great time celebrating, and will remember that feeling regardless.
Monday was a fantastic result and performance. To grind a result out when your not playing that well (second half) speaks volumes for the players and manager. We are running on half gas with all the injuries....truly amazing with we have achieved. Hopefully on merit we can get in the top six. Four points with five to go may seem a lot however it's game on for me. The only negative to me is some of the posts where people are quick to criticize. As one famous commentator said...."unbelievable Jeff". Whatever happens over the next few games it has been a truly remarkable season. Seems most of the blame gets pointed at a young lad who was brought in to play along side Stewart, Simms or someone else.....none of them worked out so it was seen that he could go and score 10 ten goals leading the line himself and get us to the promised land.....ffs....give the lad a break. He's as green as grass and I hope he has a hell of a career but I will remember him coming to us and helping us on our cause. Bring on Birmingham....HTL!!!
